Finally

Good day, people. I'm from Russia and this is my perspective.

I like how the recurring theme in the West up until recently, when it came to foreign conflicts, has been "what are we gonna get out of it?" or "of what concern is it to us?". Weak Chamberlain-like Western politicians, who didn't have enough insight to act proactively against Putin (everything about him was clear for years), didn't have enough guts to restore deterrence and prevent this invasion from happening in the first place, retreated once more - "let's not establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine", "let's continue with our "zero-emissions" agenda and continue buying fuel from Russia", "let's try to appease him and keep this conflict local" - and with that, left an open door for Putin. All they had to do is just to bang their fist on their desktop loudly, assist Ukraine with joining NATO, station some troops there and none of this would've happened. Instead, they evacuated all the embassies in advance (why didn't it happed in Afghanistan?), denied or delayed for years shipments of lethal weapons to Ukraine and played nice and cozy with Putin. History has repeated itself. Even today, they don't develop the Western energy industry (like Keystone Pipeline) - but instead come to negotiate with Venezuela and Iran. What a bad joke. I can imagine, if tomorrow Iran attacks Israel or Venezuela invades its neighbouring countries - they would come to Putin to negotiate the increase of oil and gas shipments from Russia. To make up for that, they decided to throw a scapegoat to the mob and exercise a global round of cancel culture against all the people who had the misfortune of being born in Russia. How exactly does the cutting of ordinary Russians from the opportunity to make their living helps to bring down Putin? He has solved his financial ambitions a long time ago, and believe me, he couldn't care less about us, and he wouldn't have a problem with making us eat grass, just like the Kim dynasty did in regards to the North Koreans.

If you think "this is all good, Russians should come out and protest", then you don't have the most remote idea of the hell you are even talking about. I did protest against Putin, long before it was mainstream. All I've accomplished was a fine and a case in the European Court of Human Rights, that's been awaiting decision for many years now. Some of my friends didn't get off so easily.

If you think that your virtue-signaling activities, like putting the blue and yellow colored clothing on and going out to have a walk in the streets of New York or London helps anything - you are wrong. Try coming to Russia and pull that in the center of Moscow, and I'll see how long you would last before Putin's dogs come crushing and beating you down and you end up crying in the police station.

If you think that posting a hateful comment against all Russians on the social media makes you a resistance fighter against Putin's tyranny - you are wrong. You are no different from those Russians who, whether by conviction or due to brainwashing, scream "bomb Ukraine" or "murder all the Ukrainians". And there's plenty of those, I can vouch for that - including most of my family members. But saying that all Russians should pay for Putin's and his cronies' crimes actually makes you a racist. But hey, there's nothing new about it, is there? Just another version of "all present-day Caucasians should pay for slavery" or "all men should pay for the fact that rapists exist".

Becoming a professional poker player has been a long-term dream of mine. I have tied all of my hopes about my future to it. My family was against it, which is why I left home several years ago with $500 in my pocket, cut all the ties with all the people I knew previously, and worked as a waiter in the restaurants, shop assistant etc, trying to save up money to be able to grind for several months and, hopefully, make a living off that. I specifically chose workplaces like international hotels and golf clubs, where I could have a contact with foreigners, I have read the Western news sources, watched movies in their original language - all to boost my English-speaking skills, so perhaps one day I could leave this damn country and pretend this was a nightmare. All of that goes down the tubes now. No opportunity to play poker, no opportunity to work in retail or food and beverages venues since most of them left Russia too. Back in the days it was the Soviet Union that established the Iron Curtain, now it's the Europe and US who try to keep victims of Russian Government's tyranny inside. Good job, West. Human rights protection at its best. This is me being cynical, I'm not angry at anyone, I have exhausted my ability to get disappointed a long time ago.

I guess I'm still alive - which is a better fate that many of the Ukrainians got, God save their souls, and by watching many different people over the years I have come to realisation that I'm smarter and more determined than most, which gives me hope of getting through this and eventually defecting from Mordor (for those who don't know, that is a slang term for Russia among Ukrainians and anti-Putin Russians). But smartness and honesty are not the qualities that get rewarded in a backwards place like this, it's more like being a leper. The only plan I have right now is to last this day, maybe another, then maybe a week.

In a better world, instead of leaving Russia and sanctioning ordinary people, why not make it a condition for the Russia-based players to donate half of their winnings to the Ukrainian war effort - whether it would be military procurement or civilian/humanitarian causes? Instead of ripping off the ordinary people, some of which are against the war and against Putin, how about giving them an opportunity to silently and secretly contribute to the cause of Good, since protesting out loudly would be more like a "suicide by cop"? I'm sure PokerStars Company would earn a lot of credit for doing that. But this is just me dreaming, I've always been good at that, too bad it doesn't translate into cash so easily.

Anyway guys, Слава Украине, death to Putin, and remember - just like there are many victims of Putin's lunacy abroad, there are also many victims of his tyranny domestically. Too bad Western companies and leaders decided to team up with him on that. I hope this comment of mine would help to change the minds of at least some rationally-thinking people.

Very clear post Harlow.

Western world is being over the top hypocrite in many things.
This whole cancellation of Russia is sickening in many ways.
Hope the things go well for you and you will recover for this stupidity of some governments and companies.

What legitimate site would let their customers win/lose money when the current political climate doesn’t allow the customers to do any banking with them?

Why are y’all making it out to be any more than that?

Sorry Harlow,

If you win the Sunday Million, Pokerstars would not be able to pay you, due to sanctions placed on Russia. Therefore, they have made the responsible decision to disallow you from playing.

TY for the post. You haven't changed my mind, but instead have provided an element of confirmation around what I've already suspected is the case. I'd expect most rational people to feel the same.

Best of luck to you.

Edit:

Although this also makes sense to me. In the context of everything else being shut down for the average Russian, it can seem like these decisions are aimed at hurting the Russian population. But there are other reasons for the 'cancellation' of certain services.

Also, surely there are some (crypto-related) poker clients out there that someone boxed out from Pokerstars can explore.

ACR/GG accept btc.

I think for once the US and the West responded well to this invasion. I first read warnings of the imminent invasion 3-4 months before it happened, but Russia kept denying it had any such intention, even Ukrainians themselves didn't believe it.

I very much sympathize with your predicament, I completely understand how things can get crummy in Russia and that this, very understandably, has instilled a sense of resigned fatalism for many people there.

Please don't lose hope, keep on fighting.

An announcement like this should probably be more than 1 sentence long.

If you break it down, it's really Putin who took this action against the Russian people, PokerStars is just reacting.

This is basically just Russian Black Friday - Poker is not prohibited, but Russian banks are not allowed to facilitate transfers. Sound familiar?

If you're looking for someone who "did this to you", its Putin and Russia. No one else. It's all your fault directly on indirectly.

Did you just tell a russian to keep on fighting when his country is literally killing innocent civilians day by day?

Sanctions ≠ "Cancel Culture"

Well all in all, I think this is just bad for poker in general. Whenever a big market is closed out from the global "poker stream", it negatively affects game quality. You can pull out the "russian grinder" card, but going by the fact that approximately only 10-15% of the global playerpool is a decent winner, you lose more players who are break even/losing players than those.

Hopefully it's indeed just a case of "unmanageable operation" in Russia because of the sanctions in place, and once Putin ends this madness, they can re-join the poker economy.

this x1000 its all it ever came down too. no one cares if russians are playing poker

Are you dense? Where did I tell him to fight against Ukrainians? I told him to keep fighting for a better life for himself and also to make Russia a better place.

Some of the posts here are crazy.
What is our next move? Are we going to ban Chelsea and Everton fans?

There are way more good Russian players than there are bad. The countries with fish are almost always western or south american countries. Eastern European countries have a large number of regs and very few fish. I'm guessing you're Russian yourself which is why you're giving this argument.

This. I understand innocent Russians are affected, but this all comes down to Putin. Russians think they are treated unfairly? What should Ukrainians feel?
Nobody gets close to Putin nor they have a way to leverage Putin, so they go after the country/people, that's what it is. Putin doesn't choose methods, he literally doesn't give a fukk and right now all West can do is sanction the **** out of them. I mean I couldn't care less for Russians as far as this feking demolition of Ukraine continues.

Games feel softer without Russia, can't deny, but overall traffic is also down and table availability considerably reduced. Stars feeling like a small poker site now, no doubts.

If I'm not mistaken, canadians from Ontario will also be out of the global pool soon right?

I just remember 5 or 6 years ago now when we were allowed to play poker in Australia just giving it to Russian players all the time saying how they worship Putin and had images and pictures of him in their house. What a shame these donkeys (and they were donkeys) get the final laugh.

Sooner or later the Russian grinders will find a way to play again, but there will be no Russian recs.

The invasion of Ukraine is a gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Putin!

Fwiw it seems that party blocked belarus based on the comment from partys rep in discord. Hopefully others will do the same. Meaning stars.

Oh wow, I wonder what gave it away. Must have been me referring to Russians in 3rd person.

No I am simply someone, who knows that less traffic leads to games drying up, and therefore it is bad for the poker economy. I have to mention that I do play PLO so I am not 100% familiar with the nitty sh.tfest you might have at NL50 and above, but I am positive there are more bad regs/recreational players at low stakes PLO than decent winning regulars from Russia.

Don't get me wrong, would it be a smaller site, where mass botting/RTA using is not properly monitored, I would not care that much. But Pokerstars despite a lot of negative things, is in fact still the safest site to play on, so that's not something to factor in. We simply losing a large chunk of the playerpool, and sooner or later you yourself will realise that it's not good.

Smaller pools without any eastern european players any day all day every day. Allso couldn't care less if plo dies. Just play gg there is allready more traffic at plo imo. Bunch of eastern european recs allso based on the flags.